1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing method for printing a document.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an external print control apparatus (print controller) is connected to a printing apparatus via a local network such as Ethernet® and can be identified by a single piece of apparatus information (e.g., IP address). All data is sent to the printing apparatus via the print control apparatus. Hence, processible print data is only that described in a printer description language compatible with the print control apparatus. Even if the printing apparatus can copy with a different printer description language, its function cannot be exploited (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-312140).
However, even in the arrangement in which an external print control apparatus is connected to a printing apparatus, a need is arising to input a job directly to the printing apparatus and make best use of the function of the printing apparatus. For this purpose, the print control apparatus and printing apparatus need to hold different pieces of apparatus information. With two different pieces of apparatus information held in the print control apparatus and printing apparatus, these apparatuses can receive and process different print data. Further, data using a function such as FAX or BOX processible by the printing apparatus can be sent directly to the printing apparatus.
When a print server, a plurality of printing apparatuses and a plurality of information processing apparatuses are connected to a network and a designated printing apparatus is not available, data is transferred to another printing apparatus on the network (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-281847). According to this method, the print server monitors and manages the use status of printing apparatuses in order to increase the use efficiency of those that are present on the network.
However, at this time, if the print server sets the wrong apparatus information, data is transmitted to an apparatus a user of the information processing apparatus does not intend and printing will fail.